[HELP] One of my drive is missing or is kept hidden.

[seijidinzuala]

I have Dell n5010, it has a 500 HDD, i made three partitions namely C:,E: and F:, the F: drive has gone missing or is kept hidden somehow. When I browsed my computer with Mini windows XP, the drive was still there and all the files were also not deleted. I want this drive to be shown in "My Computer" again but I do not want to format it and I am completely out of ideas. I myself did not do anything with it but I don't know if anyone touched my laptop and did something to it. See the attachment, any help is appreciated, thanks in advance.

 

[johnb35]

Try right clicking on that box and see if you have an option to assign a drive letter. Windows won't see the drive without a drive letter assigned.

 

[seijidinzuala]

It has an option "Change drive letter and path" but when I clicked on it, this error message appears. "Operation failed because disk management console view is not up to date......."

 

[johnb35]

Has there been any software or hardware installed recently? What I would do is do a system restore back to a day when it was working correctly. Been searching and it seems this may be a registry issue.

 

[seijidinzuala]

I bought a new external HDD 500gb today, I plugged it in before the drive was gone. System restore, you mean from a .gho image or something similar? I'm pretty noob with these things, sorry.

 

[johnb35]

No, the system restore feature. Start menu, programs, accessories, system tools, system restore. This is where you can restore your system back to a day where it was working correctly.

 

[seijidinzuala]

Alright, I will try that and see..

 

[S.T.A.R.S.]

Before doing a system restore,you can try to assign a drive letter through COMMAND PROMPT using DISKPART.
It is a part of Windows operating system and it's perfect for these kind of situations...

If that didn't work,some people had success by going in DEVICE MANAGER and uninstalling all USB drivers.After that restart the computer,wait for all USB drivers to reinstall again and then plug the drive in the PC and the driver for it should also be reinstalled and that could fix the issue.
But try the DISKPART first!

So:

Try using diskpart to assign a drive letter to Disk #0, Partition #1. · Open CMD > type diskpart
· Once diskpart loads type list volume, press enter
You should notice that you will see your partition that you use for your data, it should not show a drive letter assigned to it.
· Type select volume 6(replace 6 with the volume number assigned to the partition in question)
· Type assign letter Z (replace Z with the letter that you want to assign to it)
When you look in Computer, you should be able to see your partition.


Also as a precaution,you can access all your data using live Linux Ubuntu CD to copy all your data to a safe place and then just erase that entire HDD using KILL DISK and then recreate the partition in Disk Management again.

 

[seijidinzuala]

I went through another problem before I could reset my computer.. ie windows failed to boot up, showing a message MGBR is missing press Ctrl+alt+delete.. I tried to do a system repair using windows 8 disc but failed saying that I have no access to the windows installation drive..so I formatted drive C: and reinstalled windows. but I still doesnt work showing a disk read error press ctrl+alt+del, I'm totally messed up right now

 

[S.T.A.R.S.]

I don't understand what you are saying...
Did you format ONLY C: partition?
Because if that's what you did then of course it won't work.You other partition which was hidden and whos size (according to the image you gave us) is 215,47 GB must also be erased and repartitioned.
That is what I told you to do in my previous thread but ONLY if the solution which I also gave you did not work.
I don't know if you tryed it or not,but Windows OS reinstallation is the worst solution and should be done ONLY if that's the ONLY choice.

So since you reinstalled OS,do it again,but before you do,erase your entire hard disk drive using KILL DISK tool.

Here is how:

http://www.computerforum.com/208819-how-prepare-external-hard-disk-drive-use.html

The only pictures you must pay attention on in your case are the first ones related to KILL DISK.
Other images show how to partition the drive.You can use them too if you don't know how to partition the free space properly...

 

[seijidinzuala]

Before doing a system restore,you can try to assign a drive letter through COMMAND PROMPT using DISKPART.
It is a part of Windows operating system and it's perfect for these kind of situations...

I doubt this will work now since i've reinstalled OS, right?

If that didn't work,some people had success by going in DEVICE MANAGER and uninstalling all USB drivers.After that restart the computer,wait for all USB drivers to reinstall again and then plug the drive in the PC and the driver for it should also be reinstalled and that could fix the issue.

This doesn't work, btw the missing drive is one of an internal HDD drive, so I wonder if it has anything to do with the USB drivers.

Try using diskpart to assign a drive letter to Disk #0, Partition #1. · Open CMD > type diskpart
· Once diskpart loads type list volume, press enter
You should notice that you will see your partition that you use for your data, it should not show a drive letter assigned to it.
· Type select volume 6(replace 6 with the volume number assigned to the partition in question)
· Type assign letter Z (replace Z with the letter that you want to assign to it)
When you look in Computer, you should be able to see your partition.

This failed as well since the missing drive did not show up in the list volumes.

Also as a precaution,you can access all your data using live Linux Ubuntu CD to copy all your data to a safe place and then just erase that entire HDD using KILL DISK and then recreate the partition in Disk Management again.

Erasing the entire disk was the only option I could come up with, but I don't want my files to be erased and I do not have any place to backup/store my files, so that was the reason I'm making this thread in the first place.

By the way, I also found out that the missing drive was changed from logical to primary volume, can this be the reason?